JBossToolsGeneralFAQ

This FAQ is intended to provide information on the everyday use of JBoss Tools. Questions related to installation are addressed here. There are many posts in the Forum that are related to the subject, so it is a good place to gather the experience of the community. Please, follow the format of this page's setup and don't duplicate information.

Q: Why is it called JBoss Tools when it's a set of plug-ins for Eclipse?

A:Eclipse is NOT an IDE but an application framework. It is a container for plug-ins, like JBoss is a container for MBeans. And as the J2EE support of JBoss is just an MBean, the Java-IDE of Eclipse is just a set of plug-ins. In both cases, it will become clearer and clearer in the future that the scope is much broader. IBM is thinking about using Eclipse as a framework for all(!) of their future applications. And that's how we see Eclipse and the people from Eclipse see it. (Have a look at the Eclipse article about branding products that are based on Eclipse.) IBM's Websphere Studio Application Developer is a set of plug-ins (something like 500) on top of Eclipse and it's (of course) a product by itself. We're starting smaller (-: but nevertheless...

Q: Do you plan to integrate with IDE's not based on Eclipse?

A:No. There are other projects that care of that.

Q: It doesn't install or work correctly !!!

A: First of all, don't panic. Second, ask yourself if you haven't made a mistake. If you can't solve your own problem, take a look at the JBoss Tools forum. There are plenty of answers for the most common problems. Please, use search to find answer to your question and if it doesn't help start a new discussion.

Q: I found a bug, what should I do?

A:File a bug report on JBoss Tools JIRA Page. Be sure to put everything needed to correct the bug: OS, Eclipse version, component version, JVM version, and the steps to reproduce the bug. It is even better if you provide a patch.

Q: What is the difference between stable, development and nightly versions?

A:Stable version means that it went through full quality control cycle, it had enough real-world testing and has no significant problems, that's why this version is recommended for every day development.

Development version is a step on the way from one stable version to another. Usually there are several development versions between two stable versions. Each development version also goes though full quality control cycle and real-world testing, thus it is also good enough to use as every day tool, but it can contain unfinished functionality and unknown problems.

Nightly version is is built form most recent sources every day or even several times a day. This version doesn't go through full quality control cycle and you might be first person who gives it real-word testing, so it sure contains unknown problems and also might be not so good for every day development. It is good for those developers who wants to be on the edge of technology to try out fresh features and give a feedback to the development team on early stages of development.

Q: Where can I find sources for this project?

A:Sources are available on download site for every stable, development or nightly build as zip archive with all sources included. Follow the links in "Downloads" part here and then look for "All Sources" part in download page. Sources also are available form public Subversion repository: https://anonsvn.jboss.org/repos/jbosstools.

Q: I have an idea about new feature, what should I do?

A:The better way for that is open an discussion about new feature in JBossTools Forum and then create a Feature Request in JBossTools JIRA project based on forum feedback from developers.

Q: Why is it better to request new feature through JBossTools Forum?

A:JBossTools is a composition of several depended components and number of components grows in each new version. It is not easy to collect all required information like: affected component, affected version, summary, description, environment, use case to create JIRA issue. If you go right to the JBossTools JIRA, you are on your own and most likely your New Feature request will produce discussion in JIRA to fill all required fields with right information. That usually makes JIRA issue less clear and thus it takes more time to fix or implement. If you started from discussion on forum, the development team will help you out to clarify all information you need and in most cases will open JIRA issue for you

Q: Where I can see version of JBossTools I am running?

A: You can get it from About dialog. Select from Eclipse bar menu "Help->About Eclipse", then press JBossTools Icon and copy info from lower part of Window.